The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is accusing Facebook of misleading parents about protections for children and is proposing to tighten an existing agreement on privacy to include a ban on profiting from minors’ data.
The FTC said on Wednesday that Facebook misled parents about how much control they had over who their children had contact with in the Messenger Kids app and was deceptive about how much access app developers had to users’ private data, breaching a 2019 agreement on privacy.
The FTC’s proposed changes include barring Facebook from making money off data collected on users under age 18, including in its virtual reality business. It would also face expanded limitations on using facial recognition technology.
Shares of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, fell as much as 2% after the news. A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, said on Twitter that the move was a “political stunt”.
“We will vigorously fight this action and expect to prevail,” he wrote.
The FTC’s action on Wednesday is the first step in the process of changing the 2019 agreement. Facebook will have 30 days to answer. The company can appeal any commission decision to an appeals court.
“Facebook has repeatedly violated its privacy promises,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The company’s recklessness has put young users at risk, and Facebook needs to answer for its failures.”
The FTC has twice before settled with Facebook over privacy violations.
The first time was in 2012. Facebook agreed in 2019 to pay a record $5bn fine to resolve allegations it had violated a 2012 consent order by misleading users about how much control they had over their personal data. That order was finalized in 2020.
Meta is one of several social media giants to face scrutiny in recent years over potential harms its products pose to children.
Meta leaders testified in front of Congress after revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen that the company knew it steered young users towards damaging content that could have severe mental health impacts.
Other social media firms have also faced increasing pressure surrounding the inability to control misinformation and hate speech on their platforms, an issue that was the subject of multiple congressional hearings in recent years. Still, little concrete action has been taken by Washington to address the concerns.
As national legislation stalls, consumer rights groups applauded the FTC’s move, describing it as a positive step towards creating more robust protections for children online.
“Kids should never have been used as an engine of profit for Meta, and it’s great that the FTC is continuing to act aggressively,” said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice-president of the progressive non-profit Public Citizen. “Until Congress acts on its promise to ensure privacy for kids and adults online, it’s critical that the agency boldly enforces the law.”
